Deja Vu All Over Again
by twoleftfeet
Summary: When a crime scene touches a little too close to home, a CSIs secret past is revealed. a little GCR : Updated 1.4.06
1. Dead Girl number 2

The sight of the dead little girl sent a chill up his spine. "This is familiar," he thought "I don't like the way this looks." Brass was standing beside Grissom as he was taking in the scene. He could tell that the CSI was visibly shaken by it. Sara had noticed it too. "Grissom? Are you alright?" she asked.

He waved them off and gave a quick answer, "fine," then stared off into space as he was wont to do on many occasions when he was avoiding human interaction. His mind was back in 1987. It was tonight as it had been that evening. A search had yielded the body of a little girl who'd been beaten, violated, and revived in cycles more than once. All of a sudden, he could feel his lunch coming back to haunt him- Spring rolls and Mu Shu chicken. Out it went. His head was spinning. He wasn't sure how to move on to the next moment.

"Grissom!" called Sara. "What's gotten into you? We've been to scenes a thousand times more graphic and repulsive than this and you barely even flinched."

"Sara," he replied in a stern voice. "I need you to take over here for now. I need to get some air. I'll send Catherine over to assist you in the evidence collection." He hopped into the department's black Tahoe without looking back.

"What's with him?" She asked Brass. "I think you better ask him," replied the police captain.

His mind reeling, Grissom found solace in the quiet of his office. He closed the door behind him and slumped down in to his black leather chair. _What is going on? Could it be happening again? Has he come back? Why hadn't he been caught? Why couldn't I have been on the case all those years ago? _ He reached in his desk and pulled out the bottle of prescription migraine tablets he'd been on for the occasional whopper. He wanted to take two. His head was spinning, jumping back and forth from present to past like a ping-pong match in fast forward.

Just then, Catherine strolled by looking for Grissom to sign off on her annual evaluation. As was her custom, she opened the door without knocking or looking up. "Grissom," she stopped and frowned, "you look like hell. What happened to you?" His first attempt to brush her off was met with the fire that drove Catherine to be a damn good CSI. She would have none of that. "What's with you today? I come in to give you my signed evaluation form and I find you practically curled up in the fetal position hiding behind your desk. 16 years is a long time to be friends and still have this kind of communication problem."

"Catherine," he said weakly, "he's back."

"Grissom, you're speaking in code. Just tell me."

"The man who killed Anna," Grissom replied.

Catherine became quiet and then moved a chair to sit closer to Grissom. She put one hand over her mouth and the other on Grissom's right knee. "Are you sure?" she managed to force out.

"Not positive," he admitted, "but everything within me when I arrived at the crime scene screamed it. It was truly more than I could handle. I left Brass and Sara at the scene and high-tailed it here. One of my migraines started on the road and here I am. I am going to need you to take over and be the primary on this one. If there are any links, it could bring compromise and then that creep would be able to get away yet again."

"I'll go right away," she answered and rose to leave.


	2. Meeting the Parents

Sarah had just finished processing the body when Catherine pulled up in the Tahoe. "Hey," called the younger CSI, "Where've you been and where'd Grissom go? He left here in a strut and a rush and was acting pretty strangely. I just finished processing the body and based on first glance, I'd say this might not be the primary crime scene."

Catherine answered her in a more 'telling' voice than an 'asking' voice, "Why don't check the perimeter one last time, I'm riding back with the body to the Coroner's office." Sara's face indicated that she was both surprised and miffed about the arrangement, namely because she had been assigned to the case with Grissom and had gotten there first. What was going on she had to wonder, but one thing was sure. She hated being out of the loop especially where Grissom was concerned and Catherine was involved.

Sara answered flatly, "Sure," and under her breath, "whatever." Sara was at least glad she had the department vehicle to take her back to the lab.

Back at the lab, the team had been able to find the identity of the child. She was 8 year old Katey Blanchard. She had been wearing a medic alert necklace that stated that she was allergic to penicillin and that she was hearing impaired. The child had also been wearing hearing aids in both ears.

Catherine decided to find the girl's parents and see them in person. The search revealed that they lived in the neighborhood just beyond the one where she and Lindsey lived. She would go right away but would stop in Grissom's office to see how he was doing on the way out the door. "Grissom?" she called as she knocked on the supervisor's door. He had apparently gone from the office while she was at the crime scene. "Better try his cell," she thought. She pulled her tiny cellular phone out of her purse and pushed the number 3 for speed dial. The phone rang 5 times until it was answered by his voicemail. "Damn!" she whispered as she closed the phone and headed for the car. As she was walking across the parking lot, Sara pulled up in the Tahoe and rolled her window down. "I was just going to tell the parents we found their daughter. Wanna come?" asked Catherine. "Hop in," replied Sara.

The pair of CSIs rang the bell and waited. They noticed that as they did that, there were lights flashing on and off in the house. Finally, a tall, thin man with dark brown hair came to the door. "Can I help you?" he asked. It appeared to the CSIs that he had some sort of speech problem. "Sir, I'm Catherine Willows and this is Sara Sidle. We're from the crime lab. May we come in?" He took a step back and opened the door a bit further allowing the two women to enter the house.

"Sir we are looking for Mr. or Mrs. Kendall Blanchard," stated Sara. "I'm Kendall Blanchard," he answered. Catherine began, "I understand you reported your daughter missing about 15 days ago. I am sorry to tell you that we may have found her early this morning. We…" As Catherine talked to him, she turned away or looked down so that he stopped her and said, "I'm hearing-impaired and I need you to look at me when you are talking." "Oh," said Catherine, more deliberately, "I'm sorry, will you be able to come to the Coroner's office to make a positive identification of the girl?" It was apparent that this news had really shaken the man who appeared to be in his early thirties. "I need to call my wife," he told the two women, "She is at work today."

Catherine and Sara looked at each other, puzzled as to how the hearing-impaired man would use the telephone. He dialed the number and then placed the phone onto some sort of typing machine that had a cradle to receive a phone. He typed and waited, typed and waited, then finished his call. He turned to Sara and said, "My wife will be meeting us at the Coroner's office."

When they got to the Coroner's office, Catherine went to look for Grissom--still no sign of him anywhere. "Where could he be?" she thought. Then she remembered that he often went to ride roller coasters to blow off steam. She let Sara handle Mr. and Mrs. Blanchard and she went looking for Grissom. Once again, Catherine tried his cell phone. After 3 rings, he answered. "Grissom."

"Where have you been, I've been trying to reach you for over an hour?" she asked in a tone that let him know he had better have a good explanation. "I'm sorry Catherine, I had to get away. This all came upon me very fast…it was very unexpected. What's happening with the case?" he added, hopefully to get her off his case about disappearing.

"You won't believe this," she began, "but the girl we found is hearing-impaired. Her parents are here at the lab to identify the body and apparently her father is also hearing-impaired. Do you think we need to call in an interpreter to help the communication along when we can ask the father a few more questions?" she asked.

"I would ask the father what he would like to do. Many deaf people prefer to be asked if they want communication help rather than having a hearing person decide for them what services they need."

"OK, will do," she responded and then asked, "Are you coming back here or what?" He told her that he didn't think he'd be back before next shift but asked if she would come over when she finished hers.

Thankfully, it was nearly over.


	3. Grissom's Place

As planned, Catherine went to Grissom's as soon as she could get there once her shift ended. She pulled up to the condo and parked right beside his old Ford truck. After what seemed like several minutes of knocking and waiting, Catherine was greeted by a very haggard looking Grissom. "Hey," he said softly, "I'm glad you came." He stepped aside and motioned for her to come in.

"I guess your housekeeper is off today," joked Catherine, looking at the floor carpeted with old newspapers and photographs, the only threads of connection Grissom had to that tumultuous time. "And your personal beauty consultant is on vacation as well. You look terrible," she remarked hoping to lighten his mental load a bit. Grissom flashed a sheepish grin then grew more solemn. "Any new information on the case?" he asked.

"Nothing else except that the parents came in and made a positive id on the body. It turns out the kid's mother is not hearing impaired and is willing to help in any way she can. She ended up translating for her husband through questions we had for them. The daughter went to the Las Vegas Charter School for the Deaf on Oakley Avenue," she paused. "Isn't that where Anna went?"

"Yeah, it was the same school. Perhaps you should check out the place and see what you can find out there," he answered.

"Is it possible you could go along? I could use some help in sign language and since you have experience with the folks there, we might have an easier go of it."

The look on Grissom's face told Catherine she'd have some convincing to do. Finally, however, he relented and said, "Only on a consultant basis. As you know, this is terribly hard on me. It's like reliving the nightmare all over again. And to think that I could do nothing while the CSI team picked through every shred of evidence. For some reason they couldn't come up with enough to get the guy. It was that point those many years ago that it all really clicked for me that we are the only voice of the victim. Here I was a forensic pathologist myself and when something happens to my own daughter, she had no voice, no way to be heard because the evidence was inconclusive. I decided that I would do everything in my power to see that no one else had to go through what we went through."

"I'm sorry that this is repeating itself, Gil, but this may be the one opportunity you have for closure, even though it seems everything in your world is upside down," she paused, took a little breath and asked, "are you going to contact Corinne?"

"I don't have anything to say to her at this point. I'm dealing in hunches and in a secondary position yet again. Besides, I'm sure she doesn't want a reminder of this any more than I do. The whole situation was partially responsible for the divorce. I went into ultra-workaholic mode and she couldn't bear that so she left. Now she's happily married to her dentist."

"Gil, I just thought you might want to say something to her. I'd want to know if it were me. I'll leave it alone until we get more evidence to link the crimes, but after that, you know you're going to have to call her."

"Fair enough," he assented, "when we get enough evidence, I'll call her."

"Well, I've gotta run, Lindsey's at my sister's house and they were expecting me over an hour ago. I'll call you this afternoon about going to the deaf school."

"Sure," he said then added, "Cath, thanks again for coming. It means a lot to me to be able to share this with someone." Then he reached for her and embraced her in the doorway.


	4. School Visit

_Walking to the school, he is with her. She's holding his hand. Her big green eyes look up and meet his. He can tell that she is afraid. She grasps his hand a little tighter and starts to pull at him as if to say, Let's go back home, Daddy.". They walk into the large building. An obese, menacing-looking woman comes and speaks words to him. What are they saying, she wonders? What is going to happen? She signs "_Daddy, please home_" The fat woman looks down at her and grimaces. She hides behind his leg. A bell ring, lights flash. Students pour out of classrooms. The bell rings and rings. _Partially asleep, Grissom picks up the phone. "Hello," he manages to get out. "Grissom. This is Catherine. I'm heading over to the deaf school and you said you'd come. Shall I pick you up?" No answer. "GRISSOM!"

"I'm up, ok. (pause)deaf school.(pause) You pick me up? OK. See you in 15."

His eyes still heavy, Grissom dozed off for what only seemed like a moment just to be awakened by the sound of Catherine pounding on the door. "What are you doing to yourself," she asked. "I was there," he replied, "remembering her first day of school and how frightened she was, how quickly she'd grown up, even to be going to school. It was a dream."

It didn't take them long to reach the school. When they arrived on campus, it appeared that classes had just let out for the day as the schoolyard was peppered with little clusters of signing hands flying. "Did you let them know we'd be coming, Cath?" Gil asked. She assured him that she had and they proceeded to the main office. The same obese and menacing woman was there to greet them only she was older and somehow less menacing looking. "May I help you?" she asked. Gil deferred to Catherine. "Yes, I hope so. I contacted you earlier on the phone. My name is Catherine Willows and this is . . ." before she had the chance to finish her sentence, the woman broke in, "Mr. Grissom, Gil Grissom is that you?"

"Very astute observation, Mrs. Carter, it is me. How have you been?" he asked. In the beginning, Mrs. Carter had the reputation of being very rough on the outside, but after the first school year with her, the whole Grissom family had grown to love and appreciate her sometimes bristly demeanor. The scowl that was usually on her face softened somewhat into a straight-line, the closest she could get to a smile. She reached for Grissom almost to his utter surprise and amazement and said, "It has been a long while since we've seen you. How have you been all these years?" Grissom cocked his head to one side and shrugged his shoulders. "We've all thought of you often even after all these year. But I know that is not why you are here. I understand you are here on official business," said the woman.

"Yes," answered Catherine, "that's where I come in. Mr. Grissom is here on a consultant basis. We came here to ask questions regarding the disappearance of Katey Blanchard and the events that led up to the disappearance."

"We've had numerous officers, FBI, and other interested parties in and out of here for the last two weeks. I am really surprised that the Police found it necessary to send even more people here," the older woman replied.

"Well Mrs. Carter, the reason we have come back is that we have found Katey's body, " Catherine began, "Since the case is still hot, we're going back over old evidence and looking for new clues to find out who did this to her and if possible, why."

"Well I suppose you will want to see the headmaster, Charles Newberry," she asserted. That name sounded familiar to Grissom. "Charles Newberry…Charles…Charlie, CHARLIE NEWBERRY?" Grissom mulled his name over in his mind and finally, in an epiphany said, "Charlie Newberry, wasn't he that incredible football player for LVSD back then…" his voice trailed off. "That was him, Gil. He graduated in 1989 and went to Gallaudet to pursue a BA in Education and came back. He later received his MA in teaching and just last year became the school's headmaster."

Mrs. Carter escorted the pair into Mr. Newberry's office. "How can I help you?" asked the young Deaf man using his voice. Catherine straightened up and started to speak, "Mr. Newberry, I'm Catherine Willows and this is Gil Grissom from the Las Vegas Crime Lab. We're here to discuss the Katey Blanchard case." "How can I help? We've already seen police and FBI about this matter."

"Well, actually Mr. Newberry," said Catherine, "we found Katey's body early this morning. Can you think of anyone who would want to do this to her. Were there known sex offenders living in the neighborhood? Were there any recent staff changes here at LVSD? Anything unusual at all?"

"Well, the only thing I can think of is that we have just hired a different speech teacher. She had been here when I was a student. Her name was Laura Swain. She had gone out of the state for awhile but became homesick and returned to Nevada. Naturally we were thrilled to have her back. I remember that many of my friends and I enjoyed her as a teacher. She did things her own way but we really learned."

_She had been Anna's teacher, _Gil remembered. "My daughter was also a student of hers many years ago," Grissom said to the young headmaster. "What was her name?" asked Charlie, "Was she a student here?"

"Yes, she was. Her name was Anna," answered Grissom

"I see," said the younger man "I am sorry for your loss. I remember that she died when I was in 10th grade here. We all were hurt and sad about what had happened."

Grissom broke in, "Thank you for your sentiment, but I'm afraid you'll have to excuse me." Catherine finished up with the headmaster and got the vital information about the speech teacher--Catherine's next interview. For now, that was going to have to wait until she found her friend.


	5. Looking for Grissom

Upon leaving the headmaster's office, Catherine made a little detour and looked around the campus for Grissom. She found him in the courtyard, in conversation with an elderly deaf man. Grissom spotted her out of the corner of his eye but didn't turn to face her, as was his custom. At this she grumbled internally, but decided to let it go. Finally the man turned to her and made a sign that looked like he was scratching at his lip then pointed to Catherine. At that point, Grissom turned to her and said, "Hey Catherine, this is Hudson Whitlock. He was the science teacher for the school many years go." Grissom turned to the white-haired gentleman and introduced Catherine in sign language. Catherine mouthed deliberately the words, "nice to meet you."

Hudson had been like a father to Grissom through the loss of Anna. It was so good for Grissom to see him again, especially since the deeply buried emotions had resurfaced early this morning. "So, what brings you back to the old school?" Hudson signed, Grissom reverse-interpreting for Catherine.

"Well," Grissom began "I suppose you've heard about the missing girl, Katey Blanchard," he signed and spoke at the same time which adversely affected the speed at which he did either. "Yes," he replied, "that was awful for someone to do that to a little girl."

"We found her body this morning. She is dead and we're looking around for evidence that might lead us to her kidnapper and murderer." At this, the old man seemed to blanch. "You mean, she was found dead? That's just awful."

"Do you know anyone who might have wanted to do this to her, anything that seemed suspicious Mr. Whitlock?" asked Catherine, while Grissom interpreted. "No, I don't. It really bothers me that someone would even want to hurt a child, much less a deaf child who probably could not communicate with her kidnapper so he had complete control over her."

"Thank you for you time, Mr. Whitlock. It was nice to meet you," said Catherine "We're needing to meet Ms. Swain, the speech teacher right now, so I hope you will excuse us." He turned to Grissom and said, "please call me and let me know how things are going with you." He reached into his briefcase, pulled out a business card, and handed it to Grissom. "Take care yourself," he signed in ASL, American Sign Language.

As they turned from Hudson Whitlock, Catherine murmured under her breath, "I don't trust that guy, Gil. He seemed to know more than he let on. I think we need to talk to him more." Grissom was a little surprised at her comment but seemed to agree that something didn't seem quite right with Hudson. He was always so laid back. Today he seemed downright jumpy.

Grissom went deep into the recesses of his mind remembering again the days and weeks surrounding Anna's disappearance and death. He remembered long nights talking with Hudson about forensics and how science was instrumental in catching criminals. Hudson had always asked such pointed questions about evidence collecting.

Before he knew it, Grissom and Catherine had reached the office of one Ms. Laura Swain. She appeared to have a student in session, so they waited just outside the door. Not long after they arrived, a young African-American woman came to sit on the chair just outside Ms. Swain's office. She was apparently the mother of the child in session at the moment. She took the opportunity to ask if they were parents of a deaf child looking for a speech teacher. She said that Ms. Swain was the best she'd seen and that they had been through several teachers trying to find the right mix for her son, Jeffrey. "Actually, ma'am," Grissom started, "my daughter had been a student of hers a long time ago. And yes, she is quite a teacher." Finally, the door opened and Jeffrey bounded out showing off a large sticker he'd earned for his exceptional progress this week. "Look mama, I was good!" he said, relatively clearly. He was followed by Ms. Swain, "Jeffery did a masterful job on consonant blends," she said. "Keep up the good work at home. Remember to practice /th/ and /sh/ for next meeting." He signed "thank you" after a not so subtle nudge from his mother.

As the mother and son made their exit, Ms. Swain turned to Catherine and Grissom, "Is there something I can help you with?" she asked. "Hi. I am Catherine Willows from the Las Vegas Crime Lab. I wondered if we could as a few questions. The speech teacher was looking intently at Grissom. Finally she said, "Gil? Is that you?" She reached to hug him. "How are you? It's been ages." He grinned as though glad to see her but didn't gush with emotion as was his custom. "Doing fine, but here on business with Ms. Willows."

"How can I help?" she asked. Catherine broke in, "Ms. Swain, the headmaster told us that you recently returned to Las Vegas to join the faculty here again after a very long time." "Yes, that is correct," the woman replied. "Has he told you that Katey's body had been found early this morning? Can you tell us about Katey Blanchard? Did she seem troubled prior to her disappearance?" Catherine asked.

"You know, Mrs. Willows," replied that speech teacher in a rather curt manner, "I've really already answered this question over and over. Maybe you and the other 15 people who've asked me could get together on the information that's already known rather than continue to beat the same bushes. Perhaps that'd leave more time for you to catch the person who did this to Katey." At this, Grissom interjected, "Laura, we're just trying to see if there's anything, anything at all we missed."

"I know, I'm sorry," she said, "it's just that these kids are like my own kids. When they hurt, I hurt. I want so for them to be able to grow up and become productive citizens that when something interrupts that process, I feel it as intensely as a mother hen looking out for her baby chicks."

"That's exactly why we must talk to you," Catherine iterated. "These children have a connection to you that they might not have with other adults. They trust you and know that you love them and are looking out for them. So, did you notice anything strange about Katey's behavior prior to the disappearance?"

The speech teacher looked away but was visibly cogitating and ruminating on the question at hand. "You know, come to think of it, she did seem a little edgy. She had been my star of the month, which meant that she was allowed a day pass with me to get ice cream and watch a closed captioned movie at my apartment. It's an arrangement the parents and I have had over the years to recognize excellence. It seems that she had been having some trouble in Mr. Wilcewicz's class. One of the other students had been bothering her. It was that which clinched the decision to make Katey the star of the month. She was making excellent progress but also a little trouble. I felt she needed a pick-me-up."

While Catherine questioned further about this student Katey had been having trouble with, Grissom was far away, lost in thought. _Anna had been Ms. Swain's star of the month. Corinne had practiced and practiced with her to get the /s/ sound in the middle of words. She was so proud of herself when she had finally mastered it. What was more, _she _was chosen to be star of the month because of it. Grissom wondered if she had needed a 'pick-me-up' as well. Not long after that ice cream and movie date with Ms. Swain, Anna seemed to be moodier. She started acting out in classes. On speech days, she'd feign illnesses of every kind. What had happened to so alter this otherwise happy child's mood?_

Grissom was brought back to reality with an elbow to the side. "Grissom?" Catherine was standing beside Ms. Swain and it appeared that they'd wrapped up the discussion without him. He stood, nodded to the speech teacher and walked out with Catherine. "Still out there, huh?" she asked, knowing he was lost in thought, that he was more fragile than she could have ever imagined him to be. "I think we need to pay a visit to Mr. Wilcewicz," she added definitively.


	6. Wilcewicz's office

By the time Grissom and Catherine reached the office of the school's elementary math specialist, Grissom was feeling physically ill. Reliving the nightmare was one part of it, but the way things were heading in evidence collection, it seemed so much worse to him. It seemed that the people he had trusted with his daughter's education could have possibly been involved in her murder and now the murder of this other little girl. What was worse to him was that he could do nothing to help, nothing to save her. She was only 6 years old and Katey 9.

Catherine knocked on the door of Mr. Wilcewicz's office. Through opaque glass she could see him there, but he made no effort to get up. He apparently had his back to the door, facing the screen of a computer working an online Sudoku puzzle. It was then that Grissom noticed a door bell outside the office door. He pushed it and the office overhead light flickered. There was the sound a chair squeaking. A handsome, young, well built gentleman about the same height as Grissom opened the door. "Stan Wilcewicz?" inquired Catherine. At this, he pointed to his ears and shook his head. He turned to reach for a pad an pen but before he could, Grissom tapped him on the shoulder and signed, "Hi, we're from the LVPD and we wanted to ask you some questions, if we could." Visibly impressed, the young math teacher signed in ASL "WOW, surprise-me police sign." Grissom stammered to get through the reverse translation because the grammar of ASL is so different from English.

From this point on, Grissom worked in the role of interpreter for Catherine who was asking questions about Katey and the trouble she'd been having. The teacher reported that it was rather odd to him that she had been having that kind of trouble because she was quite popular with all the kids in her classes. When Jaxon Willard came to the school, all this changed. He was a student who'd been moved out of another school for the deaf for his violent outbursts. He had more than deafness as a source of challenge in his life. He had been one of the first students at the school to receive a cochlear implant which afforded him the honor of being a 'spokesperson' for official school business when he was on good behavior. When he came to LVCSD many of the kids liked him immediately. A turning point had been when he'd learned to focus on Katey as the butt of his jokes. He teased her mercilessly.

"Why didn't you stop it, Mr. Wilcewicz?" Grissom wanted to know. "It seems to me if my child were having to deal with that kind of torture from classmates, that I could feel assured that her teachers would at least deal with him." Wilcewicz explained that while he was quite vigilant in Katey's time of need, that he wasn't able to see everything that went on. That apparently, Jaxon limited teasing Katey to times outside of his class.

"Where can we find this boy," asked Catherine, Gil interpreting. "Almost time for school social so the students should be gathered in the main hall" Catherine thanked Mr. Wilcewicz for his time and headed out the door, Grissom not far behind.

"This is really a puzzle to me, Gil," the red-headed CSI finally let out. "I mean, how is it that a school campus as close knit as this one has so many secrets, so many untold stories?" Grissom shrugged his shoulders, looked at his watch and said, "It's getting to be dinner time, you hungry?" She was and glad he mentioned it. "Why don't we go to In-N-Out Burger on S. Eastern," Grissom suggested. "Anything sounds good at this point," she replied, "I'm famished."


	7. InNOut

Catherine chose a booth near a window and sat down. Grissom followed. It was easy to see why this place was called In-N-Out. Once you got in, you were ready to get out. Fortunately, it was kind of slow at this time so they could spend a little more time just talking. A middle-aged, heavy-set woman with bleached hair took their orders and quickly disappeared.

"So, how are you holding up, Gil?" asked Catherine, reaching to touch his hand.

"Moving into numbness mode now as my analytical, rational side is fighting to regain control."

"Do you have any leads, any ideas in your mind about any of this yet?" she wanted to know.

"At this point we have several options on suspects, and none I'm all that excited about. We have Laura, Wilcewicz, this Jaxon Willard kid, and…" Catherine broke in, "What about Hudson Whitlock?"

" I was getting to that, " he answered "I just hate to think of it. We'd been such close friends while Anna attended school there, partly because of our interest in science. He would be over to our house often and we'd stay up for hours talking about experiment design and the best way to do it. Anna loved for him to visit because she didn't see her grandpas that much. Corinne's folks lived in Northern California, and my father had passed away, so she considered him a surrogate grandpa. She loved that he was deaf too."

"Do I remember correctly that you mother was also deaf?" asked Catherine.

"Yes, she'd become deaf as a young girl but post-lingually, so, she could speak quite well, but learned sign language when she was moved from her school to the deaf school in Fremont. Back in those days there weren't nearly the programs they have now for the deaf. The school functioned as more of an 'asylum' of sorts. Now there are all sorts of options for deaf children and their parents."

"That seems pretty rare doesn't it?" asked Catherine "Deafness in the grandparent and in the granddaughter…" Grissom broke in, "Let's not forget I had surgery in the not so distant past in an effort to restore my hearing being lost by hereditary deafness. The pathologies are different, true enough, but it does happen. Remember, lightning _does_ strike twice."

"What happened with Anna? Was she born deaf?" inquired Catherine.

"Actually, no, she was born with normal hearing but had had so many ear infections that by 18 months old, she had lost a good percentage of hearing in both ears, so much that she was what they called severely deaf. Fortunately, I'd already known sign language, so we started that in earnest once we had the diagnosis. Corinne had actually taught her a few signs that helped her better understand what Anna wanted because she had read a book about signing with your hearing baby things like more, finished, and please. Corinne really seemed to enjoy being able to understand what Anna wanted. It was a double benefit when my mother came to visit us as well.

At any rate, we started searching for schools that would accommodate Anna's needs and found LVCSD to be just that place. They had classes starting for 3 year olds because children who are hearing impaired at the age of language acquisition have a more difficult time of learning what they can't hear, so the philosophy is give them language as early as you can, sign language being the natural progression."

The waitress returned with two cheeseburgers, fries, and two diet colas. "Could I trouble you for some extra mayonnaise?" Grissom asked her. "Sure thing, honey, be right back"

"Well let's see if we can't get this evidence sorted out, shall we?" asked Catherine, opening her mouth, attempting to wrap it around the extremely tall burger. "First of all, I want to thank you for listening, Catherine, just letting me air it all out. I've held it in for so long and stewed over it for years. I know that the loss of my daughter in such a violent way has been one thing that has been the fire in me to do whatever I could to be the voice for the victim, especially where children are involved. It's one area where I have the most trouble being able to remain rational and objective, so I'm glad you're on the case. I know you'll give it its due scrutiny."


End file.
